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Kiana Khansmith
AnasAbdin
we're not kids anymore.
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
d e v o n
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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Keni
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
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ojovivo
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Claire Keane
RMH
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@mchrispen
SNA vs TOSNA: A Comparitive Guide to Nutrient Addition Methods in Meadmaking
Most of us have failed fermentation when making mead at some point, resulting in stuck gravity, off-flavors, stinky aromatics, or rocket-fuel fusel alcohols. When reviewing “save my mead” requests on social media and Reddit, we see repeatedly that makers have failed to integrate a nutrient regimen, likely the result of the myths that time and aging will cure all. Let’s be clear, aging is another…
Texas Needs BJCP Mead Judges
Brought to you by the Texas Mead Association and Accidentalis.com! Join us in Columbus, Texas on Sunday, September 15, 2024 for a BJCP Mead Tasting Exam! If you are interested, please *** fill out this form!*** The exam is limited to a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12 examinees. Sign up early, even if you aren’t sure. Once we have your contact information, we will share all of the details on…
On Brewing Competitions, Competitors, Rules and Ethics
We need an honest and direct discussion about brewing competition. I’m not intending to call out anybody or organization here. Of course, being a homebrewer, I am mainly focused on amateur beer, mead, cider, and wine competitions, which often also have a commercial or professional track. Here in 2024, competition stakes are very high, and success is critical to promoting the hobby, which is…
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Improving BJCP Tasting Exam Scores - REDUX
Improving BJCP Tasting Exam Scores – REDUX
This is a follow-up to my article: Improving Your BJCP Tasting Exam Scores. While most of the feedback has been positive, there have been several contacts that claim I didn’t really go deep enough. So to that end, I have revised and dug a bit deeper. I just recently completed another round of grading and hopefully can provide more insight. There are a few common Examinee mistakes that are…
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"Guile Brews" by Peter Symons - a review
“Guile Brews” by Peter Symons – a review
I always feel it is essential to start a book review with a disclaimer. Peter Symons did not give me this book in exchange for a review. I bought this, like many of my brewing books, to support a friend. I consider Peter Symons a friend, although our interactions have been limited to share pints at HomeBrewCon, attending his seminars, and the occasional social media exchange. In my opinion,…
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When Perfection is the Enemy of...
When Perfection is the Enemy of…
With the exit of 2020 and a horrible start of 2021 behind us, I feel the need to address some of the issues hampering my brewing over the past few years and the resulting lack of regular content for Accidentalis.com. Hopefully, this will be cathartic for me and perhaps relatable for you. Excellence has always been a high priority in everything I take on. I have allowed Obsession with Excellence…
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Improving your BJCP Tasting Exam Scores
Improving your BJCP Tasting Exam Scores
This is a followup to my article: Judging and the Anatomy of a Scoresheet. I have started grading BJCP tasting exams (working toward Master) and have noticed a few common issues that are easily addressed and should ensure a fairly easy shot at an 80 score. The strategy is pretty straightforward advice that applies to the BJCP Beer/Cider/Mead exams.
My strategy requires just a little bit of…
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Over Complicated Home Brewing, Going Electric
Over Complicated Home Brewing, Going Electric
If there is a theme to my personal homebrewing career, I over complicate everything. It is in my personality to over-engineer, and sometimes my solutions are laughable. That said, after letting my brewing lapse for the past year, I am looking for a new start and a solution to two main issues.
There are two main problems to address: brewing in the summer heat in Central Texas, and chilling wort.…
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Walkthrough - Bru’n Water Subscriber Edition, V 5.3
Walkthrough – Bru’n Water Subscriber Edition, V 5.3
The Bru’n Water Spreadsheet is a tool to help manage your mash and water chemistry in your brewery. Over the years, Martin Brungard has made many refinements to the spreadsheet and incorporated highly detailed features. While the spreadsheet and water chemistry can be daunting, once you understand the basics and use the sheet a few times, it becomes straightforward. Do not be intimidated, take…
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YAHBB Review, "Methods of Modern Homebrewing"
YAHBB Review, “Methods of Modern Homebrewing”
YAHBB: Yet another Homebrewing Book (TM). Yes, they keep coming along and I am one of the addicts that absolutely love books of all kinds. I have a large bookshelf, the kind with the glass doors that protect the books from dust and stuff, and now have two full rows dedicated to nothing but brewing literature. The latest is “Methods of Modern Homebrewing: The Comprehensive Guide to Contemporary…
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Judging and the Anatomy of a Score Sheet
Judging and the Anatomy of a Score Sheet
It is inevitable. After a major competition, someone posts a horribly written score sheet to social media, and drama ensues; defensive lines are formed, names called. In my years of competing, the quality of score sheet feedback has been random. When reading paired sheets side-by-side, you can often tell who is the influencer on the table and directs the consensus score. You can also tell who is…
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A Celebration of Mead and Makers
A Celebration of Mead and Makers
Between March 8 and 11, a herd of mead makers (and a few bee-keepers), converged on the beautiful and scenic Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado in celebration of mead. This year, the weather was gorgeous, hanging in the 50’s – 60’s, with clear views of the mountains. Home brewing beer has its NHC (Ninkasi) and MCAB. Mead brewers have Mead Free or Die, the Domras Cup, and the SuperBowl…
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Keys to Consistency
Leaning forward from my last post about lessons learned, I am putting a plan together to help me hit a stretch goal of consistency. While this may seem obvious, I am pretty serious about eliminating “possibly” problematic issues, and striking highly consistent and predictable brewing. So here are my “Keys to Consistency.” Key #1: Eliminate the unpredictable Let’s kick off with the most obvious…
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Learn from my mistakes...
Learn from my mistakes…
I firmly believe we learn from history, even our own. While it may seem pedantic, I learn through doing and, most often, making mistakes. So here’s my top 6 things I learned in this past year. Consider it confessional and cathartic. 1. It takes a while to recover from a complete reset. I decided early in the year to completely reboot my brewing approach. I was getting bored, and a little…
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Meet Ricardo
About a year and a half ago, I met this energetic dude with a strong Southern (that is Argentinian) accent, that was coming back to Austin after spending a few years in Munich. Ricardo engaged the Zealots, looking to get back involved. Even while shipping beers over from Germany, he was taking medals in the US. If you were at the AHA HomebrewCon (jeez I still can’t say it), Ric and his lovely bride were bopping around the Zealot’s booth in lederhosen.
Ricardo (Ric) and I have discussed low oxygen quite a bit, and it has been clear for a while that LO2 was already intrinsic to Ric’s brewing philosophy. He has been Ric-Rolling through the 2016 Lone Star Circuit, most recently winning the individual category by a respectable 38 point lead. This is no small feat in a circuit that is front loaded with great brewers!
I got the opportunity to crash a recent brew day. Ric was experimenting with sugar and yeast to reduce DO in the mash water, rather than a preboil and metabisulfite addition before grain in. He simply added 11 grams of table sugar and 11 grams of dry yeast to the mash water, and held the temperature around 90F for 30-45 minutes. Then the mash was brought up to strike temperatures for grain in.
A very small amount of sodium metabisulfite, ascorbic acid, and BrewTan B was then used in the mash at grain in to scavenge any O2 uptake. Ricardo doesn’t have a DO meter (and I forgot mine), but it appeared to work very well. There was very little (if any) darkening of the wort, and the cast wort was incredibly flavorful and delicate!
Q&A
(M) How did you get started in brewing?
(Ric) I have been a craft beer fan since a Grad School Happy hour at the late Waterloo Brewing Co (Austin, TX) in 1995. In 2007, a co-worker invited me to homebrew at his house (and take the beer with me). I chose the Austin Homebrew Supply’s American Barley Wine in mini-mash form, went through the motions and bottle conditioned the beers in 33cc flip-tops. I remember the beers being pretty good (a bit fusel-y).
I was hooked after that. I started doing whole grain after moving to Munich in 2010.
Sidebar: An interesting detail is that I never force carbonated a beer in my life. All my beers have been bottle or keg conditioned.
(M) Having come from Argentina and Germany, what is your general impression of the US’s homebrewing culture?
(Ric) I came to the US in 1991 for Graduate School, and although I returned for three years in 1999, I did not have much contact with homebrewers. The German homebrewing culture has a much longer tradition but has not experienced the exponential growth the American culture has had.
There are not as many homebrewers in Germany as there are in the US, but the level is very good. Most of them can and do brew lagers regularly. Another oddity is that the homebrewer group in Munich is at least 40-50% retired pro-brewers, most of them only drink/ like Munich beers (Helles, Dunkles, and an occasional Weizen or Bock).
(M) Describe your favorite meal and what beer to pair with it? (For the record, Ric’s wife is a tremendous cook!)
(Ric) What about me??? Third place at recent Chili cookoff, not too bad! Back to the question, my favorite pairings are those that enhance both the food and the beer. I love a good dry IPA (Pliny-like) with sweets like carrot cake; I also like Goulash (enter your favorite chili here) and Schlenkerla smoked doppelbock. Munich Helles goes well with light food, bread, and even fish or chicken if not heavily spiced. For pork and beef, a Märzen, Dunkel, Dunkelweizen or Bock.
(M) What is your position on low oxygen brewing?
(Ric) On the hot side, the scientific data shows a benefit for flavorful, light lagers (eg Munich Helles). The data is not validated at the homebrew scale but given the potential for oxidation is much higher at our scale, I think that good homebrew research is likely to show a difference in light, flavorful lagers. There is no data on other styles, and I think if any differences exist, will be much more difficult to prove.
On the cold side, the research is very clear, every brewer should be a LO2 brewer.
(M) Describe your general brewing process, including hot and cold side operations.
(Ric) I brew 5 gallon batches in a BIAB system with recirculation. I condition the malt before milling. I use RO water for light beers, and Austin water treated for chlorine/ chloramines. Most of my mashes are hochkurz (step mash), adding a protein rest for dark beers. I sparge for big beers but not for normal beers. I normally bitter via first wort hops, and boil 90 min for pils malt and 60 min for the rest of the beers.
I use an immersion-chiller, and transfer the beer to an auxiliary fermenter without much focus on the hot break. I chill this fermenter to almost freezing over 12-24 hours and then transfer to the primary. Whether starting from dry, liquid or slurry, my pitch is always active yeast.
All my beers are transferred to kegs for conditioning. I condition lagers via spunding valve. I let my ales finish fermentation and then I keg them with table sugar and gelatin. I bottle big beers without kegging them.
Conclusion
What may be lost in all of this is that Ric’s system is designed with brilliant simplicity. A single vessel with an electric element, BIAB, circulation via short lines with a pump, eliminates the potentially unnecessary complexity of a RIMS or HERMS. Even if using a cooler or other mash tun configurations, simplicity works to your advantage. This should be very clear in contrast to my post about tightening up my Brew-Magic system. Simple techniques, such as a mash-tun cap and gentle transfers, as well as fewer possible points of failure, go a long way to managing oxygen uptake.
Something that Ric and I have discussed in detail is that nearly ALL of the scientific research on oxygen’s role in brewing comes from commercial and academic research looking at mass manufacturing scales. The relevance to homebrewing, as he mentions, has not been proven, yet the principals remain. Science is science after all. So while I continue to explore in a more sloppy manner, Ric is systematically testing variables. Of course, neither of us have access to labs and equipment required to prove anything. That leaves, for now, subjective sensory evaluation.
Ricardo’s process is not as tightly rigid as proposed by many of the LODO proponents, despite his hawkish attention to detail. His process is based on sound fundamentals; proper water chemistry, mash pH management, excellent yeast and fermentation hygiene. Perhaps more importantly, his procedures are consistent and predictable, which allows Ric to experiment by changing a single variable or troubleshoot a problem. I always learn something new brewing with people!
Ric’s Go-To Helles Recipe
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Only a PHD would have a rocker table for yeast! :) So jealous!
Carefully weighing up the grist for a 5 gallon helles batch
Water is pre-heating to strike temps
High Gravity EBC-SV set to bring up the temperature. This was an experiment using sugar and yeast to control DO.
Malt is conditioned with 2% of it’s weight in warm water.
Malt conditioning requires a good mix of the water and malt, yielding a dry malt, but with elevated moisture.
A relatively fine grind (BIAB), but with good husk retention.
After grain-in (added to the liquor) without a stir.
Mash is capped after grain in to reduce DO uptake
Kettle lidded and set for rest of about 15 minutes
Mash has a little foam after grain in – settles during initial still rest.
Ric’s old school pH meter
pH 4.1 calibration solution
Calibration of pH meter in 7.0 solution.
Wort sample, goes into an ice bath
Mash sample cooling in ice bath.
pH testing a cooled (to room temperature) wort sample
Post static rest, post mash pH test
Post rest, ready to circulate
Pulling the mash cap to allow circulation
Setting the lid
Sauergut reactor. Yep. Olde schoole. And a good beer on it’s own!
Attaching the circulation hose
All set to circulate
Circulating the mash, after a static rest.
Maintaining mash rest.
Site glass showing fairly clear wort right after circulation
Controlling circulation speed via ball valve
Handy! a hook on the ventilation fan holds the lid
Return diffusor that is buried in the mash for circulation.
Simple setup, one vessel with the bag
Circulation running, site glass post valve.
Ah the usually useless refractometer… but this works before fermentation.
Site glass is useful for seeing where conversion occurs
Clear wort is a sign of conversion starting.
Dismantling after the step mash
Just a little hops for the boil (FWH)
Super clear into the boil step
Hop Soup
Controlling the boil intensity
Watching for hot break
Coming to boil, after bag is removed
FWH in the house
Prepping to pull the basket
Pulling the basket
Gathering the bag
Gathering the bag to remove
Pulling the tabs on the bag
Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier.
Lifting slowly to minimize dripping
Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier.
Twist and lift. Standing on the clothes drier.
Wrangling the bag on the colander
Fat bag won’t settle on the colander
Swing the bag to a convenient kettle
Carefully move the bag out of the way
Gentle boil through out
Brewing With a Master – Ricardo Fritzsche Meet Ricardo About a year and a half ago, I met this energetic dude with a strong Southern (that is Argentinian) accent, that was coming back to Austin after spending a few years in Munich.
Brew Magic Mods: Loc-line and Whirlpool
Brew Magic Mods: Loc-line and Whirlpool
My last article sparked some questions about my Brew Magic Mods. Below, you will find the two most requested, and parts list. Warning: If your Brew Magic V350MS is still under warranty, I do not recommend making substantial changes to the kettles. Most of the parts may be purchased at BrewHardware.com. Sadly, Bobby doesn’t carry the 1/2″ tri-clover fittings, but you can find them at…
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Practical Guide - Low Oxygen Brewing on the Brew-Magic
Practical Guide – Low Oxygen Brewing on the Brew-Magic
Discussions of brewing with low oxygen have returned to the home brewing world with some controversy. I will be using LO2 as a short cut to describe what has been termed LoDO or low oxygen brewing. If you follow this blog, you are aware that I have been exploring low oxygen for some time, starting with a reboot of my brewing procedures, chasing a very low malt astringency that was appearing in my…
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